Central Brooklyn Food Coop’s Mission Statement is:
The Central Brooklyn Food Coop is a 100% working member-owned and –operated food store with membership open to all. Our mission is to utilize our collective strength to ensure access to affordable and fresh food while centering the Black, low-to-moderate-income communities of Central Brooklyn.
Central Brooklyn Food Coop’s Core Values are:
Openness and Accessibility to all
- Respect for and celebration of differences in race, ethnicity, gender, age, economic status, religion, sexual orientation, creed, ability status, and other social characteristics.
- Encourage membership by easing potential economic barriers.
- Strive toward the elimination of social, economic, political, and cultural barriers to healthy and sustainable food access.
Central Brooklyn Self-Determination and Community Building
- Commitment to maintaining and institutionalizing leadership representative of the mostly-of-color, low- and moderate-income communities of Central Brooklyn.
Skills-Sharing and Political Education
- Serve as a skills-sharing hub to build our collective knowledge around food nutrition, cooperatives and overcoming oppression in our food system.
Transformation of Local Food System and Social Responsibility
- Advocate policies that improve food access within the context of affordability, quality, and choice in Central Brooklyn.
- Maintain a pipeline to local, affordable and sustainable food in Central Brooklyn.
- Promote and prioritize buying relationships with local farms, farmers of color, and socially responsible corporate citizens.
- Adhere to environmentally responsible, waste disposal and land use practices.
- Support strategic alliances between local food security initiatives, local farmers, and Central Brooklyn residents.
Dedication to Cooperative Values
- Instill a culture of transparency within our cooperative’s leadership and member-owner relationship structures.
- Respect every member-owner’s voice and contribution to the cooperative community.
- Observe the International Cooperative Alliance’s 7 Cooperative Principles.
- Work together as one team to reap benefits for both the self and the community.
Central Brooklyn Food Coop’s Community Agreements are:
- In this place we take the time to build interpersonal community (1:1) in order to build and strengthen our larger community.
- In this place we view conflict as a natural and healthy part of community building. Whether those involved choose to address conflict 1:1 or with the larger group, we engage conflict directly, lovingly, and respectfully.
- In this place we celebrate and affirm our individual identities in all our differences, while acknowledging how those differences affect both our lived experiences and the perspectives with which we approach this work.
- In this place we commit to centering the interests, needs, and aspirations of Black members and Black people in the larger community.
- In this place we communicate openly about our intentions, expectations, values, and capacities. Information is given freely and received openly.
- In this place we ground our work in the history and practice of restorative justice.
- In this place we embody the interdependent, joyful, and liberated world we want to build through shared labor and making space for fun.